Raymond Official Calls Citizens ‘Clowns’ and Says They are ‘Laughed At’ When Cameras are Off

Bernie Peer Says Raymond Officials "laugh" at citizens when the cameras are turned off. Photos are from Peer's 2016 campaign.

By Kimberly Morin

This morning, Garland Bernie Peer told citizens of the Raymond they are literally laughed at when the cameras are off because they dare to question elected and appointed town officials. The exchange happened on a public Facebook page of a Raymond Citizens’ group that seeks to hold officials accountable.

Bernie Peer – Is currently the Vice Chair of the Conservation Commission in Raymond and sits as an alternate on the Planning Board. He is currently running for the board of selectmen. Currently owes back taxes for 2016 but appears to be making payments:

Peer has since paid all of his back-property taxes that were owed. Taxes were due on December 1st, the property tax report was from the end of January 2017.

Several citizens have started to hold Raymond officials accountable for their actions and it appears that Peer isn’t happy about it. From what Peer says in his comment, they all laugh at these citizens they are supposed to represent. It’s not hard to believe this is true. Last year, after reporting on the outrageous back taxes owed in Raymond, the board tried to claim that NH Political Buzz was “fake news” and then verified everything that was reported. It was noted how disrespectful Raymond elected officials behave towards their own fellow citizens:

There indeed is something rotten in the Town of Raymond and it appears to be the board of selectmen. These people are so arrogant they believe the residents of Raymond are uneducated and uninformed. They have zero respect for the people they are supposed to be representing. Not only are they outright lying to their own constituents, they are doubling down on their lies for fear of actually being caught in the corrupt web of deceit they are spinning.

Keeping government open and transparent to the local community should be our highest priority.

It’s unclear if calling his fellow citizens “clowns” is constructive but at least he’s transparent in regards to how Raymond Officials feel about the people they are representing.

After Peer lost his election to the BOS, he wrote an email to Political Buzz, blaming factual reporting on his “demise:”

Of course, nothing was untruthful in the reporting nor was anything recanted. Political Buzz updated the article when people like Peer scrambled to pay the rest of his property taxes once it was discovered that he didn’t bother paying them on time. Truth seems to be a sanitizer in Raymond, one that is desperately needed and one that some citizens are trying to achieve.

Citizens should hold their elected and appointed officials accountable. Those officials should have no problem when citizens question them about their actions. Any official, elected or otherwise, who doesn’t take the concerns of citizens seriously, should step down. Unfortunately in Raymond, it seems the officials don’t care too much about the citizens they are supposed to represent, Peer is a prime example of the collective behavior that seems to be rampant.